In the northern part of the eastern slope of the Polar Urals, near the burial of fold-nappe structures under the sedimentary cover of the West Siberian geosyneclise (WSG) the Shchuchya protrusion of Paleozoic rocks is located. It is separated from the typical Urals structures nearly north-south trending by a zone of Mesozoic-Cenozoic deposits. This protrusion is characterized by a wide development of volcanogenic, terrigenous, organogenic, and siliceous pelagic deep-water deposits which are variably “diluted” by redeposited or eolian thin pyroclastics. The combination of these types of rocks suggests a close spatial proximity of contrasting sedimentary environments typical for island arcs. At this time conditions favorable for formation of the reef systems of island (intraoceanic) position have appeared. The modern structure of the protrusion exhibits either entirely preserved reef buildups or their large landslide fragments, or coarse clastic carbonate strata which had formed due to destruction of these buildups. Field studies of the geologic structure of the Shchuchya protrusion resulted in the identification of two heterochronous reef complexes: the Early Devonian complex, widely developed in the western parts of the area, and the Givetian-Frasnian complex, whose individual buildups occur in the eastern regions. Both complexes are considered in detail in the work.
Facies zonation of the Paleozoic basement of West Siberian geosyncline and its surroundings is presented. Facies megazones are distinguished according to types of sedimentation. Analysis of lateral and successive sedimentary sequences shows that the available data are insufficient to map the facies distribution over the whole territory of the geosyncline for short time slices. Only the Late Devonian section is supported by data sufficient for the proposed facies zonation. Five megazones, I, II, III, IV, and V, are distinguished in the westward direction. First three megazones make up a single lateral facies succession and represent sedimentary environments on and around the Siberian continent. Megazone IV includes shallow-water volcanic and sedimentary rocks that compose the Kazakhstan continent bounded by Early and Middle Carboniferous sutures in the west and east. Megazone V comprises fold-thrust (island arc) complexes of the eastern Urals. The main events in the geologic history of the region were associated with the interaction of two major crustal masses (Siberian and East European continents) and the young Kazakhstan continent in the oceanic space called the Paleoasian ocean. Only few fragments of this space occur in the present-day framework of the territory, the greatest part being sunk in subduction zones, especially in the large zone of the Main Uralian Fault.Production and accumulation of organic matter in pre-Mesozoic deposits occurred on continental shelves, which are most promising for Precambrian and Paleozoic oil and gas. (c) 2007, IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The Shchuch'ya inlier, geomorphologically highlighted against the plain topography of the southwestern Yamal Peninsula near the northern subduction of the Polar Urals, is a link between the buried structures of the basement of the West Siberian geosyneclise (WSG) and geodynamically well-explored Paleozoic structures of the eastern slope of the Urals. Within the entire Uralo-Mongolian Fold Belt, this block displays unique denudation. In addition, there are numerous quarries along the railway and automobile road which are constructed from the town of Labytnangi to northern Yamal. Such a profitable situation, supplemented with data of prospecting and core drilling, makes this area a key object for studying a complete set of facies settings, stages of development, and conditions of the formation of island-arc complexes in the geochronological range from Ordovician to Carboniferous.Results of the complex study of the Shchuch'ya inlier by detailed biostratigraphy, structure-tectonic mapping, lithogeodynamic and facies analysis, petrology, petrogeochemistry, and organic geochemistry permitted us to reconstruct the settings and evolution stages of sedimentogenesis and petrogenesis, to corroborate the island-arc nature of structure-formational complexes of this territory, and to reveal their most important morphological, structural, facies, and petrochemical indicator characteristics, which can be efficiently used for the diagnostics of geodynamic settings and interpretation of drilling and geophysical data in other areas of the WSG. The specific features of the explored complexes are regular lateral and vertical combinations of thick carbonate massifs with volcanic, terrigenous, and siliceous rocks, the presence of slope facies (thick elastic mixtites and fine-terrigenous gradational gravitites) around the organogenic reefs, and spatial closeness of deep- and shallow-water facies due to contrasting bathymetric differentiation of the paleobasin. We have established microfacies types of organogenic reefs, conditions of formation of zones of gravitational, hypergenic, and tectonic desintegration of rocks as potential reservoirs, molecular composition, distribution, and catagenesis of organic matter in reefs and near-reef facies as factors contributing to their oil-producing potential. Comparative analysis of geological and geophysical data on other regions of the WSG shows that the island-arc complexes with thick organogenic bodies are rather widespread in the Paleozoic stage of the WSG.